A lesson in trusting God…

Today is my son Isaac’s 6th birthday.  I am so thankful for this little guy because he has taught me so much about being a mom even though he is child #3.

When we first found out we were pregnant, we were constantly praying about how I would work full time with 3 kids and God answered in a totally unexpected way by saying “You won’t”. Because of Isaac, I made the decision to be a stay-at-home mom and finally for the first time put my hubby and kids above work. Because of Isaac (which means “He laughs”), I learned how true it is that when we make plans God laughs and shows us his own plans for our life. This little guy is the happiest guy I have ever known and truly lives up to his name!

Six years ago, in June of 2015, I started writing the following blog post.  At the time, I had just decided to quit my job and was totally unsure how we would make our budget work with only one income.  Now, after living on one income for 6 years, I can see how God has taken care of all my silly little worries I had at the time.  Our little family of 5 feels so much “richer” than ever before because we have been learning money doesn’t make you rich.

Enjoy my ramblings from 2015…

After a 3 year break, I’ve decided to start blogging again!  Before my focus was mainly on cheap and quick meals with a few coupon deals and budgeting tips.  This time around life is very different and I’m going to focus more on transitioning to a family of 4 with 2 full-time working parents, to a family of 5 with only my husband working full time.  This is going to be a MAJOR reduction in our income, so I need to totally remake our budget and work harder on the saving money end.

Background on our decision:

Zack and I found out we are pregnant in December. Surprise! We had recently decided we were very happy with our little family of 4 and were done having kids.  Well, God obviously had different plans for us.  I had a week of freaking out over how we would become a family of 5 with our current house and income, and with a baby due in September how would I make that work with teaching. I can vividly remember driving down the road, trying to figure out how we were going to make this work when the song “Strong Enough” by Matthew West came on the radio.  The first line is “You must think that I am strong to give me what I’m going through”.  I started crying and had a total mind shift and from that moment I knew God planned for us to have baby #3, we were going to be fine, and his plan is always better than mine.

Up until the end of May, the plan was that I would go back to work full time after a short maternity leave at the start of school.  We knew we were going to need to do some major $$ saving to pay for the hospital bills, time off work, and an additional child in daycare.  We had a plan the relied on Zack getting LOTS of roofs this summer, and Tommy had to get into preschool.  I then found out that because I was very low on sick days at work, after 10 days I would be docked about $220 per day for every day I took off work.  This was going to make our plan even harder, but we didn’t think we had any other option.

Well, one Wednesday a few weeks ago, in the middle of a super stressful week of school, the thought of becoming a stay-at-home mom occurred to me.  I mentioned it casually to Zack, and he said it would be nice if we could make it work.  Well, my mind started racing on ways we could make this a reality.  That weekend we sat down to crunch the numbers and realized I would be making just over $5,000 next year (or roughly $400 per MONTH for full-time work!) if we took my income minus maternity leave minus 3 kids in daycare.  When we looked at the numbers that way, it was a no-brainer.  If we were going to be THAT short on money I might as well stay home!  That Monday I put in my letter of resignation and have had no doubts about it since.  We have done some serious praying over this, and we are both 100% confident it is the right move, even if the numbers don’t quite work out for our budget YET.

The Plan

How are we going to live as a family of 5 on Zack’s income that is super unpredictable?  Well, the rough idea is Zack’s job is to make more money and mine is to save more money.

Making more Money

With me at home, Zack will no longer have to take kids to daycare in the morning or pick them up when I have meetings at work.  This adds about 8 or more hours to his working week.  He was also the one who had to take off work when the kids got sick, but with me at home, he won’t need to do that.  He is also going to work until about 5 or 6 each day instead of only 4.  We are very blessed that his construction business is doing well enough to support this, and will just keep praying it stays that way.  If we need more money, we know I can always pick up a few tutoring jobs or maybe even try donating plasma? (yikes!)

Saving More Money

Our list of ways so far to save more money is for me to focus more on couponing.  When I’m working full time, I just don’t have the time to find great deals or to go to multiple stores to get them.  We have also canceled our trash pick up (17$ a month) and will be applying for WIC.  Our health insurance costs will probably go down since now the kids will qualify for cheap/free health insurance. I’m still working on other ways to save money and will post as I figure them out.

The Main Goal

Our main goal is for me to finally be able to be just a wife and mom (& housekeeper & cook) without the pressure of also working 5 days a week 7am-4:30 pm (plus time after the kids go to bed) all without going into debt while living on less $$ per month.  Sounds crazy but we can do it!

Fast forward to 2021- how is my “plan” going?  Well, Zack is making plenty to keep our budget balanced. Over the past 6 years I have sold Usborne Book, Norwex, donated plasma, started working for my church and started a Financial Coaching business. All of these little jobs have helped to keep my busy and give us a little extra wiggle room in our budget.

I have loved staying home and have no plans to return to working full-time.  Some days my 3 little ones drive me nuts, but they did that when I was working too 🙂

Below is the link to the song that totally changed my view on having baby #3.  I encourage you to listen to it or to just read the lyrics.  I also encourage you to reflect back on times that seemed so tough but you made it through.  Remember- God’s plans are always better than our own…sometimes it just takes a while to understand.